American Legal History Cases and Materials

by Hall, Kermit L.; Wiecek, William M.; Finkelman, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780195059083
• ISBN10: 0195059085
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-04-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Approaching American legal history from a new perspective, this text employs cases and other legal documents to reveal the law's underlying culture. American Legal History provides a comprehensive selection of the most important documents--well over 170--which integrate the history of public and private law from America's colonial origins to the present. It devotes special attention to the interaction of social and legal change, shows how legal ideas developed in tandem with specific historical events, and reveals a rich legal culture unique to America. Introductions and explanations accompany each document, tying legal developments to broader historical themes and providing a social and political context essential to an understanding of the history of law in America. Offering a thorough examination of both public and private law, American Legal History is essential for students and teachers of constitutional and legal history, the judicial process, and the effects of law on society.

Table of Contents

Law in the Morning of America: The Beginnings of American Law, to 1760

Law in a Republican Revolution, 1760-1815

The Active State and the Mixed Economy, 1812-1860

Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction

Nineteenth Century Law and Society, 1800-1900

Bench, Bar, and Legal Reform in the Nineteenth Century

Industrialization and the Regulatory State, 1860-1920

Total War, Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

The Rise of Legal Liberalism, Economic Reform, and the New Deal, 1900-1945

The Tensions of Contemporary Law and Society, 1945-1987

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.